CNGC mediated signal transduction and networking in plant immunity

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To support the growing demand for food production, the usage of agrochemicals, which protect plants from various pathogens and insects in agricultural production, has increased dramatically over the last decades. However, the negative environmental effects of these chemicals are becoming a serious issue all over the world. Furthermore, despite of the extensive use of these agrochemicals, the worldwide crop loss caused by plant disease is approximately $220 billion annually. To address these issues, the generation of pathogen resistant crops and environmentally friendly agrochemicals are essential. For this aim, it is crucial to understand the plant's own natural defense system at the molecular level. During the past decade, extensive efforts have been made to understand the recognition and signal transduction in plant immunity. However, the signal transduction cascade following pathogen recognition is still largely unknown. In order to identify components of the resistance signaling pathway, we have conducted a screening for Arabidopsis mutants which show alterations in pathogen resistance. Through this screen we identified cpr22 that exhibits constitutive activation of various defense responses. In the past four and half years we have identified the cpr22 gene as an unusual chimeric cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel gene (AtCNGC11/12) and reported that the transient expression of AtCNGC11/12 induces Ca2+-dependent programmed cell death. Our data about AtCNGC11 and 12, and the data from other research groups about AtCNGC2 and 4 strongly indicate significant roles of CNGCs in plant immunity. However the molecular mechanism of their involvement in the induction of resistance responses and the CNGC-mediated signal transduction cascade are still largely unknown. The aim of this proposal is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of CNGC mediated signal transduction in plant immunity. The outcome of this proposal certainly will improve our understanding of the role of CNGCs in the plant immune system and also contribute to discover practical solutions for agricultural/environmental issues caused by pathogens and agrochemicals.